1. Field of the Technology
The present technology relates to an image processing program and an image processing apparatus, and more specifically to an image processing program and an image processing apparatus for associating apexes which form a drawing such as a graphic, a letter or the like to each other by a virtual spring and displaying how the drawing is deformed.
2. Description of the Background Art
In conventional image processing, a spring is set between apexes of a model representing a graphic or a letter in order to naturally represent how the model is deformed.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-73549 describes an image processing apparatus for setting a spring between apexes of a model and also setting a spring between an initial position of an apex and a post-movement position thereof. The image processing apparatus can naturally represent how the model is deformed when one point of the model is moved, using the above-mentioned two types of springs.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-69549 describes an image processing method for putting image data into a mesh of cells and setting a spring between apexes of the cells. This image processing method also sets a rotational spring at an angle made by the springs. This image processing method can naturally represent how the image is deformed.
The conventional image processing methods using springs described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications Nos. 9-73549 and 10-69549 set springs so as to directly connect the apexes of a model (FIG. 31A and FIG. 31B). When using such a method to perform image processing for deforming the model, it is indispensable to calculate a distance between two points. This requires heavy calculation processing such as, for example, square root calculation or square calculation. In addition, the method described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-69549 sets a rotational spring as well as the spring connecting the apexes (FIG. 31B). This requires matrix calculation, which makes the processing heavier. As can be appreciated from the above, the conventional image processing methods have a problem that the load imposed on a game apparatus for performing image processing for model deformation is quite heavy. This is especially serious to mobile game devices and cellular phones having a low data processing capability.